In this June 28, 2011, file photo, Pope Benedict XVI touches a touchpad to send a tweet for the launch of the Vatican news information portal 'www.news.va', at the Vatican.

Written by

Will Higgins
| Gannett

On Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI goes on Twitter, which people find funny because he's 85 and head of an organization that isn't always the first to embrace the latest in pop culture.

Interest in the pope's tweets is high. On Monday, before he'd thumbed out a single one, the pontiff, @pontifex, had more than 600,000 "followers" who will see his tweets in English plus another couple hundred thousand for the other languages he and his staff will be tweeting in.

For context, that's three times as many as entertaining and partially famous Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has - and Irsay has knocked ...